


Denial

by Nope



Category: The Tomorrow People (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-04-19
Updated: 2003-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-31 17:58:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10904493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nope/pseuds/Nope
Summary: They all have their own way of dealing with the unknown.





	Denial

[ _Five minutes,_ ] says Kevin before Megabyte has even opened his mouth. Kevin's doing that a lot lately.  
  
They're in the ship. It's blazing hot sunshine outside, deep blue seas, white sandy beach, but they're in the ship because Kevin is working on something. Kevin is always working on something. Kevin who he used to ride to school on a bus with, Kevin who would steal his Game-boy and then proceed to die repeatedly in a variety of stupid and sometimes quite inventive ways. Kevin who was taken away and grew up and came back from parent-imposed exile with a fanatical gleam in his eye, an earlier acceptance to Cambridge and a hard-on for obscure and pointlessly complicated branches of Physics.  
  
"And stop bloody pacing," adds Kevin, who still hasn't looked up.  
  
The screens around him are filled with scrolling numbers and constantly changing graphs and spinning rings and quite pretty field patterns that Megabyte expects have some significant meaning, but he knows not to ask what. Kevin could out lecture Adam, and that's saying something. The last time, there'd been all this stuff about Quantum Inseparability and non-locality and Rosen-someone fields and other things he had no wish to remember the names of; Megabyte had been forced to go and watch "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" and "The Thing From Another World" and "The Fifty Foot Woman" until his brain stopped hurting.  
  
Kevin likes computers because they help him think. Megabyte likes computers because they mean he doesn't have to.  
  
"Kev," he begins but Kevin is already saying "Why don't you go bug Adam or something?" which, now he comes to think about it, Megabyte was vaguely considering doing anyway. So he does.  
  
Adam is also in the ship. But that's just how it works. Adam, ship. Ship, Adam. They go together. Like peas in a pod, only, you know, not really. Bad metaphor. Simile. Whatever. Megabyte wonders which it is. Adam would know, of course.  
  
[ _Simile._ ]  
  
Megabyte sends Adam a picture of a giant smiling faces but gets no response. Adam can read them all without even really trying but if Adam doesn't want to be scanned, Adam can't be scanned. He's the only one of them able to screen his thoughts that hard and if Megabyte and Adam were different people, Megabyte might be worried about what Adam's hiding, but they aren't and he isn't and instead he sends back [ _Kev grew up weird._ ]  
  
[ _We all have our own ways of dealing with the unknown._ ] Adam has maps and papers spread out over every available surface, pins in them, notes on them, is scribbling more notes in a spiral bound notebook, unconsciously pushing hair out of his eyes because he only remembers to get it cut when Megabyte drags him along with him.  
  
"I think you grew up weird, too."  
  
"Shut up, Marmaduke."  
  
Megabyte grins at Adam.  
  
There's a chess board out in the middle of a game that won't continue 'til Ami wakes up. She's eight hours behind and, while space may not mean much to them, time still does.  
  
[ _Not according to Kev, though,_ ] Megabyte adds to Adam, moving a book entitled "The Psychology of Emergent Societies and Subcultures" and sitting down in its place.  
  
"You've heard his latest theory then?"  
  
"Only about a hundred times... space is time is thought... you know, he says you should be able to heal people still."  
  
"I've tried. You know that."  
  
"Maybe you can't because you think you can't."  
  
Adam ignores that, reaches out a hand blindly and grabs Megabyte's knee. There's a moment's silence.  
  
[ _You're sitting on paper I need,_ ] says Adam, his cheeks coloured slightly.  
  
"Oh, right." Megabyte says, lifting himself up enough to pull it out, hands it over.  
  
"Thanks." Adam goes back to writing.  
  
A silence. Then, "You know, we used to do things."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Have adventures. Run around. You'd hug people, make speeches and get knocked out a lot. Not just sit around the ship--"  
  
Adam actually looks up at that, shoulders settling into lecture mode. "Megabyte, there are more of us appearing every day. We have to protect them from the world, and the world from them, until they're both ready. This work we're doing might not be so--"  
  
"Yeah," says Megabyte waving that away, "I get that. But that doesn't mean we can't get out once in a while. You should come out with Kevin and me. He's just--"  
  
[ _Two minutes,_ ] says Kevin.  
  
"Come on," says Megabyte, bouncing to his feet. [ _This used to be fun._ ]  
  
[ _It's not supposed to be fun,_ ] says Adam, "it's a duty--"  
  
"Being the next step on the evolutionary ladder used to be wicked," interrupts Megabyte.  
  
"Wicked?"  
  
"Cool!"  
  
"Did you get stuck in the nineties?"  
  
"Adam--"  
  
"This is not cool."  
  
"It is cool."  
  
"It is not... Look," tries Adam, getting to his feet.  
  
"You know what your problem is?" asks Megabyte.  
  
"What--" manages Adam and then Megabyte jumps him and Adam stiffens as a warm body is pressed hard against his own and then they're/~  
  
~/popping out of an electric crackle into heavy heat and then Adam is sliding down a sandy bank to land ass deep in water.  
  
[ _Megabyte!_ ]  
  
"Ask me where we are."  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"You're in a river in Egypt."  
  
"A riv--"  Adam scowled.  "Oh, very funny."  
  
[ _I'm talking to you telepathically and I just took you half way across the world in the blink of an eye just to make a joke,_ ] says Megabyte, putting out a hand to pull Adam up. "Tell me that isn't cool."  
  
"It isn't--" begins Adam and then pulls hard before Megabyte can let go, and brings the other man spluttering down into the water with him.  
  
[ _I'm done,_ ] says Kevin, and starts explaining his new theory but they both block him out.  
  
"Last one back to the ship is a rotten egg," grins Megabyte, plants a loud kiss on Adam's cheek and vanishes in a spray of electric light.  
  
"Maybe just a little cool," smiles Adam, touching his cheek. Then he too is gone.  
  
Uninterrupted, the river flows on out of the dessert.


End file.
